{"id":3616,"date":"2020-12-03T09:51:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T14:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=3616"},"modified":"2020-12-03T09:51:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T14:51:39","slug":"americans-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/americans-divided\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Divided"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polarized<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We are alive in a divided nation.\u00a0\u00a0We are so divided, we can\u2019t even agree if the almost 160 million votes in the Presidential election were cast accurately.\u00a0\u00a0Illogically, we accept the results from those same ballots for other offices. We are so splintered, the deaths of more than 270,000 Americans in the past nine months hasn\u2019t created a unified front.\u00a0\u00a0And we are so polarized, when offered a \u201ccure\u201d for the pandemic, forty percent of us won\u2019t take it (Gallup<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts tell us that by March 1, 2021, another 200,000 Americans will die from COVID (IHME<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s at our current rate of \u201cmitigation\u201d. We need to take care of each other by doing the \u201cstupid, simple\u201d things:\u00a0\u00a0wear masks, social distance, don\u2019t travel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Because of our divisions we simply aren\u2019t doing them, and more people are dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an American President committed to an unjustified war that would cost 200,000 lives in the next four months, we would all rise in righteous indignation.\u00a0\u00a0More Americans will die in this year of COVID than died in all of World War II.\u00a0\u00a0But we are so splintered, we won\u2019t stop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

America was a divided nation before World War II.\u00a0\u00a0Franklin Roosevelt brought the nation together to recover from the Great Depression, but he was unable to unify us to battle Nazi Fascism.\u00a0\u00a0The horror of the trenches of World War I, and the crushing disappointment in the failure of the peace afterwards, convinced Americans to \u201cisolate\u201d behind our ocean \u201cwalls\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even America\u2019s heroes warned against war.  Marine General Smedley Butler, two-time Medal of Honor winner, denounced intervention.  Charles Lindbergh, the hero of \u201cThe Spirit of St. Louis\u201d was against involvement in European battles.  And the US ambassador to Great Britain itself, Joseph Kennedy, was recalled because he didn\u2019t think America should fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radio was the great public medium of the 1930\u2019s. And Father Coughlin spoke to the nation night after night against entering the war.\u00a0\u00a0He broadcast on WJR from Detroit, a \u201cclear channel\u201d station that at the time was so powerful that most of the nation could listen to it directly.\u00a0\u00a0The CBS radio network further spread his voice across the rest of the country. He did not create the divisions, but he knew how to inflame them. He was more popular and more powerful than a Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity of today. His power was like a Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0Many in the nation listened and believed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until December 7th<\/sup>, 1941 that the tide turned.\u00a0\u00a0The Japanese direct attack on Americans at Pearl Harbor proved to unite Americans in a single effort.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It took the loss of American lives, 2,403 on that December day, for America\u2019s \u201crighteous might\u201d to respond in an all-out effort to save freedom in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Now?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our ocean \u201cwalls\u201d did not protect us against COVID either.  In fact we know that the virus was already in the United States before it was \u201cidentified\u201d in Wuhan, China in January.  Research now shows that Americans in America were already infected in December of 2019 (NPR<\/a>). COVID was in the streets of New York before we even knew about the \u201cwet markets\u201d of Wuhan.  It was here before we knew it, and before any efforts to stop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it really no longer matters whether we stopped flights from China, or anywhere else.  What does matter is what America will do now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Biden has already evoked wartime efforts when talking about the pandemic.  But can any President unite a nation that doesn\u2019t even believe in the same news, the same set of facts, or even the same creed?  In essence, is America ever going to be \u201cunite-able\u201d again?  Have we reached a point where we are in fact two nations, irrevocably divided by the message of our modern-day Father Coughlin, Donald Trump?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Pearl Harbor Americans lined up to volunteer for the military.  My parents\u2019 generation was willing to give their lives for the cause. What will it take to get us lined up for a simple shot?  Will the cause of saving the lives hundreds of thousands of those at the greatest risk be enough?  Or will the \u201cFather Coughlin\u201d of our time continue to exploit the divisions among us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polarized We are alive in a divided nation.\u00a0\u00a0We are so divided, we can\u2019t even agree if the almost 160 million votes in the Presidential election were cast accurately.\u00a0\u00a0Illogically, we accept the results from those same ballots for other offices. We are so splintered, the deaths of more than 270,000 Americans in the past nine months … Continue reading “Americans Divided”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmericans Divided : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are a nation divided. 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